Estimating Final Demand Expenditure at Factor Cost and Net Price Indices

This article describes the methodology which is currently used at Statistics Canada to compute price indices, net of taxes and subsidies (net price indices), and to estimate final demand expenditure at factor cost in the Canadian system of national accounts. This methodology involves the use of a specially designed input-output model of the Canadian economy. The model is used to extract the taxes, net of subsidies paid on the inputs used by industries, and to allocate these net taxes to the direct and indirect final demand deliveries of the industries. Downstream interindustry links are established to trace the final demand deliveries of industries. Using these links, the model could easily be extended to decompose final demand expenditure into other cost components, such as the embedded energy cost or the cost of imported inputs. Some empirical results are shown to illustrate how the calculations are made.